Book review: “America's Mary: the story of Our Lady of Good Help”

Did you know that you do not have to leave the United States to visit a place where the Church has approved that the Blessed Virgin Mary has appeared?

You can go to Champion, Wisconsin, where the Church has concurred that the Blessed Virgin appeared three times to a Belgian immigrant, Adele Brise, in October 1859. 

Mary identified herself as the Queen of Heaven and encouraged Adele to teach local children their catechism, to pray, do penance, make sacrifices and to receive the sacraments frequently. This apparition was simple and involved only one person seeing Mary. There were other people present for the other apparitions, and they felt something was happening, but they could not see or hear Mary speak to Adele.

Champion, Wisconsin, is part of what is called the “Door Peninsula of Wisconsin.” The area was settled by Catholic Belgians. Adele organized a group of women to house and educate children in the Door area. This group of women became Franciscan Tertiaries, whom Adele called the Sisters of Saint Francis of Assisi, while others called them the “Sisters of Good Health,” or “Sisters of Good Help.” They had a convent, boarding school and other buildings around the Shrine of Our Lady.    

Some people questioned the validity of Mary's apparition, but a miracle concerning a large fire in 1871, which burned a lot of land and killed many people, changed many minds. The fire headed toward the shrine, but did not touch the property of the shrine. The fire went around, rain eventually put it out and this was considered a major miracle that the Blessed Virgin Mary had interceded for them.

This apparition of Mary was approved by Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Dec. 8, 2010, after having completed the prescribed inquiry into the apparition. This made the apparition of Our Lady of Good Help the only approved Marian apparition in the United States.  

This book, “America's Mary: the story of Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin” by Marge Steinhage Fenelon, discusses all of this and more.  

Fenelon includes information about Marian apparitions and how they are approved. Father Edward Looney had written a previous book on this apparition, provided the epilogue for this book. 

This 191-page book has illustrations, a timeline and bibliographical references. This book is highly recommended for information on Our Lady of Good Help, but also about how Marian apparitions are approved by the Church. 

Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., Saint Gregory's Abbey, Shawnee, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.